Week 1
Hello from Geneva! I arrived a little over a week ago and just completed my first week at International Bridges to Justice. And what a week it has been! Everybody in the office is very nice and welcoming. There are quite a few interns here already and apparently more are coming (up to 14 of us in July!) but it seems like there is ample amount of work to be done so it is great that we can help.
I have already been given a few assignments to be working on while I am here. First thing I helped with was an audit of the Defense Wiki site that IBJ hosts. It is basically a wikipedia page of each country in the world that outlines the rights that an individual has, detainment, trial, and post trial overview, and also a section on rights of a criminal defense attorney. This site needs A LOT of work. I was then assigned to start updating a few pages. I was excited to be asked to update the Philippines page because I lived there for six months in undergrad and have a definite interest in the country.
Shortly after starting that however, I got pulled into an assignment with Jayli to write the second half of the India Criminal Defense Manual that IBJ is trying to publish. The W&M interns last year wrote the first half so IBJ wants to continue the W&M partnership and have us finish it! I am honored that IBJ trusts us with this task because usually they partner with an international law firm to write the manual, so asking us to do it means that IBJ really views W&M students highly. An interesting thing I learned while reading through the Indian Code of Criminal Procedure is that India has a lot of laws focused on protecting women. For example, when a woman says she did not give consent in a rape or sexual assault case, the burden of proof shifts to the defendant to prove that the woman DID give consent.
Over the weekend, Jayli, another intern, and I ventured over to Annecy, France which is only about an hour away from Geneva. It is called the venice of the alps and with good reason! It is absolutely beautiful, the canals and mountains are gorgeous, and we had the perfect weather to go explore. It hasn't rained once since I have stepped foot in Geneva! So far I love it here!